CHICAGO—The National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) has announced the first partners of its “Better Vision Together-Community of Practice” program. According to a release, the goal of this project is to improve vision and eye health in at-risk, minority and vulnerable populations of young children. The NCCVEH will work with selected groups to provide aid and solutions that are rooted in population health strategies through a peer-support approach. These include policy change, systems of vision and eye health, public awareness, and data collection.

Eight groups from across the country were selected to work with the federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded project led by the NCCVEH.

Selected community/state teams include:

•Overgaard Ponderosa Vision Screening Program, Overgaard Ponderosa Lions Club and Foundation- Overgaard, Ariz.

•Eyes on Learning, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust- Phoenix, Ariz.

•Better Vision Together San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco- San Francisco, Calif.

•Amblyopia Elimination Project, Naples Lions Club Foundation- Naples, Fla.

•Eyedaho Vision Team, Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind- Gooding, Idaho

•Haverhill Promise of Children’s Vision, Haverhill Public Schools and Haverhill Promise- Haverhill, Mass.

•Improving Childhood Vision Health Task Force, Minneapolis Public Schools Office of Early Childhood Education- Minneapolis, Minn.

•Texas Children’s Vision Coalition, Prevent Blindness Texas- Houston, Texas

Additionally, at-risk, minority, and vulnerable children ages birth through 5 years are targeted for improved children’s vision care systems. The teams from this program will work with children and families from African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American communities in rural and urban areas as well as American Indian reservations.
Several teams will also serve immigrants and refugees from countries including Iraq, Congo, Burma, Somalia, Afghanistan and Laos as well as migrant agricultural worker families.

“Through the new Better Vision Together-Community of Practice program, we can continue our mission to provide our children with the best opportunities for healthy vision, school readiness and more,” said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “Our team is eager to work closely with all of our new partners to determine the most effective ways to improve vision services and hopefully expand and apply the best practices to all children across the country.”

For more information about the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness, or the Better Vision Together-Community of Practice program, click here or contact Donna Fishman at (800) 331-2020 or dfishman@preventblindness.org.